Daurdian (Dwarfs) Tactics
Why play Daurdian? For those defensive players out there with a love of artillary will love the Daurdian. Full of character with great models that can be painted in various color schemes often laced with metalics. Despite what some people think the loss of toughness characteristic since WHFB changed to AOS, has caused the dwarfs 'unmoveble' character to be lost. This is untrue however as the dwarf armies still display a very defensive army with abilities to back this up. There is also the matter of Daurdian technology particularly in the form of there war machines which are generally the best in the game. These two characteristics combined mean that your opponent will have no choice but to attempt to break through the iron hard defences of the dwarfs as to keep there distance will leave them vunerable to yor armies warmachines. its potentially a lose lose situation for them. This is by no means the only strategy open to you however as the Dwarfs have a number of specialist and fun units such as the Slayers and Gyrocopters that can really take the fight to the enemy Pros: - Well balanced army in terms of quality and quantity - Excellant bravery and anti battleshock abilites - Best Warmachines in the game - Strong defensive buffs - Decent offensive statline including high rend - Beautiful army when arranged in ranks - Dwarf magic (AKA runes) are not subject to the same rules as regular magic Cons - Slow.the slowest in the game - Some warmachines can be un reliable - Defensive stats rely on buffs and synergy - No magic in the conventional sense The Units = Named Characters Thorgrim Grudgebearer Ungrim Ironfist Ungrim represents the raw deadliness of a slayer without the majority of there weaknesses. Making him a deadly close combat warrior that buffs units with a commanf ability and buffs slayers with a proximity bonus. Slayer Oath: Add 1 to any wound rolls if the enemy target has more than 1 wound. This ability brings Ungrims already good wounding roll down to a 2+ and considering that nearly all heros and monsters (The guys you want this guy to take on) this buff will apply for the majority of Ungrims fights. A mighty Death: If ungrim is Slain roll a 4+ amd you can deal D6 Mortal wounds to the unit that killed him. Basically the same as the regular slayers/Dragon Slayers deathblow/epic deathblow ability but is automatically D6 regardless of the target. Will make the enemy flinch when they try and slay him. Dragon Cloak of Fyreskar: Grants ungrim a 6+ save after save for Wounds and M wounds. When you consider that Ungrim is a Slayer an average save of 4 + this ability makes him much harder to kill than a Slayer ought to be meaning that he has a decent chance of surviving alot of his combats Command ability The Slayer King: Can add 1 to all hit and wound rolls to one selected Dispossed unit during the combat phase. A half decent command ability that means that despite appearing to be a muscle head in your army he does serve as a decent general. General Tactics: If you have Slayers in your army you want to field Ungrim if you field ungrim you want slayers in your army. Ungrim can make a decent all round commander able to take on enemy heros and monsters while buffing a unit at a time. Its up to you if you want to use him as part on an ambush unit possibly to defend your precious artillary from harm or if you want to charge him forward to hunt down enemy heros or batter his way through enemy chaff. Either way field him with an honor guard of Slayers and this little red haored mob will be a force to be reckoned with. Thorek Ironbrow Basically a magical war machine. Similar in many ways to the empires Hurricanum or Lunemark however it is still classed as a priest as opposed magic making its abilities unblockable. A good option for countering magic and generally useful if you can afford to take one. Master runes of spellbreaking: Can attempt to unbind 2 spells like a wizard and canadd +2 to the unbinding rolls. An ability that may make fielding this unit worthwhile all by itself depending on what other anti magic defences you already have in place. Strike the runes: Cast like a spell however on a 2+ for each one and cannot be unbound all with a 24" range!. Additionally if close to Kraggi (Which you should always be unless he is dead) you can attempt to cast a DIFFERENT rune. The avalaible runes are as follows: * Rune of Hearth & Home: pick a visible dispossed unit and until the next hero phase this unit does not need to take battleshock. A little underwhelming considering this armies already formidible resistance to battleshock but may come in handy . . . * Rune of Oath and Steel: Save for the range and the fact that you can only target Dispossed units this Rune is EXACTLY the same as Mystic shield (1+ to saves). Seemingly underwhelming again. however dont be decieved the ability to grant an already defensive army even more resistance to enemy attacks is invaluable particularly when you take into account the 24" range. * Rune of Wrath and Ruin: Pick visible enemy and deal D3 Mortal Wounds. A long ranged easy to cast version of Arcane Bolt. Not exactly mind blowing but when you consider that you can cast this alongside a defensive option as well it can help to chip away at some of the armies tougher units. And lets not forget that any protection that the enemy hays that blocks wounds caused by spells will not apply to this. Easy wounds. General Tactics: Overall not the earth shattering powerhouse you might expect from the greatest living rune lord and his ancient artifact the anvil of doom. However while Thorek will not blow your mind in one paticular area he does pull his weight if you factor in ALL his abilities when fielding him. He has the ability to unbind 2 spells with a 2+ modifier. On top of that Kraggi can also attempt to unbind a spell (Albeit without the modifier) which allows him to attempt to stop any spells that slip through the cracks of your army with realative success. This will afford your army protection against also but the most persistant of spellcasters such as Nagash. Being able to cast an almost automatic mystic shield and arcane bolt every turn with no way of it being blocked while at a comfortable distance of 24" can tip the balance in many different engagements through out the battle. And lastly Thorek and co arent all that bad in combat meaning that any Warmachine hunting units that the enemy wishes to employ will find themselves with a much tougher fight on their hands meaning you dont have to waste models to protect this unit. Its only real weakness is its 1" movement characteristic. So you need to think about where you position him. However even this isent so much of a problem as since all of this units useful attributes occur in the hero phases you can make this unit run (It can run but not charge) without any downsides! Belegar Ironhammer Josef Bugman Grim Burloksson Heros Dwarf Lord Solid command option. Can hold its own in combat and has a couple of different loadout options. As well as a useful command ability. Shield Bearers: Increase this guys staline a little by having him carried on a shield this increases his wounds to 7 and adds shield bearers hammers to his melee loadout. There is no downside to fielding your dwarf lord in this manner depending on how your game is being balanced. Ancestor Shield: An optional loadout that grants a 3+ save instead of 4+. Taking this loadout really depends on what you intend to use him for. If you planning to use the Dwarf Lord as your general then it may be preferable to field this option to make him harder to kill. Stubborn Oath Keeper: Can forsake moving until the next hero phase to grant + 1 bravery to all dispossed within 18". Not overly powerful considering the wealth of batleshock reducing options avalaible to you but it really depends on how youve set up your army (Relics rather than battle standards?) Command ability Ancestral Grudge: Can single out an enemy unit each hero phase that adds 1 to the wound rolls of ALL attacks made against that target unit. Quite a unique and interesting ability as it means you can surgically remove an enemy unit one at a time by using this ability and then focusing your now buffed up attacks on them. Ideal of the enemy has a quality over quantity army. General Tactics: Its always worth having one of these guys in your army even if they are just used as a standard hero they will help reduce your casulties through battleshock. The three loadouts can be split into there rolls quite easily. If your planning to use the lord to slay heros and monsters and not as your general then its proberbly best to use the great axe for the guarnteed 3 damge instead of d3 and the higher rend. if you are plannng to keep this unit close to the rest of your army but still engage him in oportune combats then the regular rune axe is still effective albeit with slighly more variable damage however the shield will help keep him out of harms way. Finally the axe and pistol combo will make your lord more vunerable but means that he may contribute to your damage total without actually getting into combat himself. Rune Lord Dragon Slayer A Slayer Hero plain and simple. can deal out an impressive amount of damage against Monsters a Slayer with a great Axe able to deliver 24 wounds. and at a 3+ hit 2+ wound and -2 rend you are likely to successfully land a good number of these wounds. Unfortunatley like most slayers this guys save is appalling making him a choice pin cushion for enemy archers. Runic Axes: if the Dragon Slayer is carrying two runic axes as opposed to a Runic Great axe he can re roll all hit roll of 1. Carrying this loadout is mostly useful if you are likely to come up against multiple units in which case this increases its effectiveness. However this slayer is unlikely to survive a second turn if alone in combat against a mob of enemies Epic Deathblow: If slain in combat this combat this unit, on a roll of 4+ may deal D3 dmamge to his killer (D6 if it was a monster). Since you will hopefully me using this guy against monster primarily this final attack could very well be the thing that drops that nasty dragon once and for all making your slayers heoric (And very probable) death worth while. Master Slayer: Doubles damage dealth by slayer if the enemy is a monster. This is where the Slayer really becomes dangerous as each succesful attack will now deal a minimum of 2 damage to monsters. meaning that with a few choice buffs even if all your D3 damage rolls fail you ou could still be dishing out 8 wounds a go. Slayer Oath: Adds 1 to wound rolls if enemies have more than 1 wound which is even better than it saying monsters as it now encompasses anything larger than a foot soldier. This ability is an extra step towards achieving that coveted 24 wounds. The Slayer King: If near the slayer king this guy deals an extra attack. Obviously an extra great axe swing has more damaging potential than an extra runic axe. General Tactics: As a secondary hero the Dragon Slayers damage output is very impressive and you will find that very few opponents will relish the idea of taking on these bezerkers one on one. However considering this guy has only the standard 5 wounds for a character his size and a terrible 6+ save along with that the effort you will need to put in to get this guy anywhere near the enemy is considerble. You could consider trying to use him as a distraction like the Wood elf wardancers however unlike the elven variety of beserker the dragon slayer only has the standard dwarf movement rate of 4" meaning that the enemy likely has more than enough time to pick him off without taking there eyes off your army for to long and since he has no command ability holding him back is utterly pointless not to mention very un slayer like!. Ultimately if you can find a decent way to get this guy in the mix then take him along but if you only have limited placements and you find yourself choosing between ungrim and the dragon slayer go with Ungrim every time. Dwarf Engineer Glancing at this guys warscroll he may look pretty bare and boring. However what you need to remember about the engineer is that the majority of his benefits are on the warscrolls of the artillary he buffs not his own!. This guy has but one purpose. Turn your already not inconsiderble dwarf artillary into murder machines. Weapon loadouts: able to switch between a few different weapon loadouts this guy may be able to offer a little extra protection against assasin type enemys that may attempt hit and runs on your war machines. Brace of Pistols: if armed with a brace of pistols he can shoot twice. Again only really much use against woould be assasins Engineer: can repair a single war machine within 4" for 1 wound. Speaks for itself somewhat but is only useful if the opponent attacks the machine instead of the crew. General Tactics: Generally speaking if this guy is within 1" of one of your war machines he can make it better. However 1" is not an aweful lot of distance and since this guy classes as a hero option you will proberbly not be wanting to field more than a couple of him if that (And certainly not enough for each and every warmachine) therefore if you want to reap the benefits of the engineer all at once you need to position your artillary in such a way that they are all close enough to him. Once example could include delta formation (1-2 straight in front of him, 1 either side of him. and if they are grudge throwers that dont need line of sight or you happen to be fighting a battle that involves enemies from multiple directions two directly behind him.) Two main downsides to this however is that the close proximity of warmachines such as cannons will limit the arch of fire avaliable (Not to mention you need to fit all the crew somewhere in amongst that!) and secondly you will potentially be having all your most powerful weapons condensed into a single area that the enemy can fight towards (not to mention devastating area attack such as Celestant primes comet strike sceptre) way up the risks to the situation but if you can afford to have more than one engineer it would pay to split your artillary up for maximum effect. Thane with Battle Standard Infantry Hammerers Ironbreakers Irondrakes Longbeards Dwarf Warriors: Your rank and file infantry. Has the choice of either a hand weapon and shield or a great weapon and shield (Despite what people seem to think the warscroll dosent specify that you cant carry a shield with a great weapon). This may seem a little unfair but the only gain from carrying a double handed axe is a -1 rend. However I will address the tactics of both incase your opponent has a problem with this. Resolute in Defence: can re roll wounds of 1 is the opponents combat phase or all wound rolls if the unit contains 20+ models. Since these are basic infantry it is best to field them in atleast units of 20+ meaning that they will get a nice little boost in attacking power while defending. Dwarf Shields: Allows you to re roll failed saves if this unit didnt run or charge this turn.Again this is another arrow point you towards defence and overall it is a very good one. Sadly these shields dont do anything to increase this units defences however which are suprisingly low for a unit of dwarfs at 5+. Runic Icon & Clan Banner: Mentioned together because you may only carry one or the other. The banner halves the number of units that flee at the conclusion of a battleshock test for this unit. The runic icon allows this unit on a roll of 5 or 5 to prevent a spell from effecting them (Note the spell is not unbound and will still effect any other targets). As banner options go these two are great and your choice really depends on who your up against. For instance a Tzeenchian army which has a high level of magic could tear these guys apart without a little magic protection which isent overly abundent in the dwarf army unless you field Thorek. on the other hand its well worth thinking of what anti battleshock buffs you have in place if you choose to leave the banner at home as halving your number of fleeing models will make the dwarfs hard to move off the table. General Tactics: without the shields to back them up these units can be very chaffy at best and even with the shields only on the defence. As per usual it depends on how you wish to use them. A large group of dwarfs with great axes along with a few external buffs will be a distraction that your enemy cannot afford to ignore thus keeping the pressure off your harder hitting troops. However if used in defence the shield is an obvious must and very useful when putting a wall between you and your precious artillary. Worth having around for the numbers and not the end of the world if you lose a few. Miners: Your dwarf ambushers and the closest thing to a summoning unit that the dwarfs have. You dont set them up on the table. they instead pop up out of the ground anywhere on the field so long as they are far away enough from the enemy also they are unable to move until the next movement phase. they can charge however. Quarrellers Thunderers Slayers = WarMachines Dwarf Cannon Organ Gun Grudge Thrower Bolt Thrower Flame Cannon Gyrocopter Gyrobomber